Is it possible to trace and assign neurites as axons when they do not initiate at the soma? Sometimes there are axons which derive from dendrites…
Hi Tina,
Thanks for posting your question about classifying axons and dendrites when reconstructing neurons in MBF Bioscience’s Neurolucida or Neurolucida 360 software. In the Tree Editing mode, users can Assign tree Types as Dendrite, Axon, or Apical dendrite.
All of the branches associated with this tree will be categorized under that type.
If you want to set the tree types using this method, but your axon begins at a dendrite instead of a soma, you would need to reconstruct them as two separate trees. Set one tree’s Type to Dendrite and the second tree’s Type to Axon.
There is another way within Neurolucida 360 and Neurolucida software to categorize each branch of a given tree. In the same Tree Editing mode, you could use the Classify tool to denote one tree segment as a Dendrite and one as an Axon. The categories for the Classify tool are all defined by the user, so you have to power to name them anything you like.
I hope you find this answer helpful and if you would like to discuss your specific example in more detail, please feel free to open a support case using this webform.
Thanks!
Aidan
Hi Aidan,
thank you very much for your support. That helped a lot! Best, Tina